This paper investigates the thermal behaviour of a large lithium iron phosphate (LFP) battery cell based on its electrochemical-thermal modelling for the predictions of its temperature evolution and distribution during both charge and discharge processes. The electrochemical-thermal modelling of the cell is performed for two cell geometry approaches: homogeneous (the internal region is considered as a single region) and discrete (the internal region is split into smaller regions for each layer inside the cell). The experimental measurements and the predictions of the cell surface temperature achieved with the simulations for both approaches are in good agreement with 1.5 °C maximum root mean square error. From the results, the maximum cell surface temperature and temperature gradient between the internal and the surface regions are around 31.3 °C and 1.6 °C. The temperature gradient in the radial direction is observed to be greater about 1.1 °C compared to the longitudinal direction, which is caused by the lower thermal conductivity of the cell in the radial compared to the longitudinal direction. During its discharge, the reversible, the ohmic and the reaction heat generations inside the cell reach up to 2 W, 7 W and 17 W respectively. From the comparison of the two modelling approaches, this paper establishes that the homogeneous modelling of the cell internal region is suitable for the study of a single cylindrical cell and is appropriate for the two-dimensional thermal behaviour investigation of a battery module made of multiple cells.

This paper represents a simulation model for a 2D-thermal model applied on a Lithium-ion pouch battery. This model is able to describe the transient response of the thermal distribution accurately. The heat generation parameters used in this model have been obtained experimentally from dedicated estimation technique. The experimental and simulation are performed at different charge and discharge current rates. The experimental results are in good agreement with the developed model. The battery thermal distributions using natural and forced convection cooling are studied.

In this paper, the thermal behaviour of an unbalanced battery module made of large lithium iron phosphate cylindrical cells of 18 Ah nominal capacity is investigated during its discharge with 18 A, 54 A and 90 A currents. For this study, several cells were assigned in the module to 5%, 10% and 20% initial depth of discharge (DoD). The thermal management of the cells in the module is achieved based on a forced air cooling. The computations of the temperature distribution inside the cells and the module are performed with a two-dimensional modelling approach. During the discharges, the cells with a non-zero initial DoD show a more pronounced temperature increase up to 5% compared to the reference cells. In the end of the three discharges, the highest temperatures 26.5 °C (18 A), 29.6 °C (54 A) and 32.3 °C (90 A), respectively, are reached for the cells with the highest initial DoD. For these cells, with the increase in the current rate, the highest amount of total heat exceeds 25 W. The reactive and the active heats are found to be the main contributors to the total heat generated by the cells. This study provides the effect of the initial DoD of the cells on the temperature development occurring in an unbalanced battery module during its discharge.